Senator John McCain is in Colorado today, for the first time since losing the state's republican primary to Mitt Romney by over 40 points, to give a speech at Denver University this morning and host a fundraiser later this evening. Colorado is a key element to the republican party's  fortunes come November. It is in the center of the Mountain West region that has traditionally voted republican but has started to lean democrat in recent years.

The speech was hailed as "a major foreign policy speech" by the Denver Post, but the content of the speech - we can have nuclear weapons, other countries cannot - was merely a major campaign strategy. This marked the beginning of a calculated attempt to frame McCain as a tough leader in dire times. Apparently developing this persona requires him to focus on idealistic initiatives to rid the world of nuclear weapons instead of concrete solutions to end our occupation of Iraq.

According to the Post he "extended an olive branch to Russia today by pledging to work toward elimination of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe." Really John, you're going to pull out some 480 nuclear weapons we have stored in six different NATO countries? That olive branch isn't anything more than a cheap political ploy to appear diplomatic. Putin doesn't care about empty promises - but Americans still might!?    

He invoked JFK at one point when he tried to explain that nuclear proliferation cannot be allowed to spread into countries like Iran and North Korea. He compared the current political atmosphere to the Cold War, saying America needs "innovative and energetic" leadership, which ironically are exactly his shortcomings. Sounds familiar right? It looks like McCain's manipulators have found their "say everything we're not, they'll believe it" stride. We'll probably hear a lot more doomsday scenarios involving nuclear weapons getting into the wrong hands. Those tactics have been a proven winner in the not so distant past.

Is it too logical to suggest that McCain actually use some "innovation and energetic" leadership abilities and put an end to / solve the crisis in Iraq? He says our troops will "come home with victory and with honor," but never says how he's going to get them back here. Is it too obvious to assume that our invasion of a hostile country has increased the real risk of nuclear proliferation throughout a hostile world? He says America must be "a good citizen of the world," but never addressed torturing enemy combatants.

McCain won't win the national election by talking like George Bush, but he probably won't lose Colorado by 40 points again either.